Gift
by Kurama no Miko2003
Summary: Christmas, gift giving, and the woes of amnesia.  Yami gets caught brooding, and Yuugi reminds him of all that he's already done.  One-shot, Puzzleshippy.


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor do I make any money from writing this piece of fanfiction.

Reader Warnings: Puzzleshippy, if you wish to see it that way.

AN: It's Christmas, and I realized I didn't have anything written for last year (even though I had one for the year before). So here's something short, angsty, and fluffy for you all. Merry Christmas!

Gift

The spirit walked through the living room, examining the sparkling lights, the brightly decorated tree, and the colorfully wrapped presents under it. It added a warmth to the darkness that hadn't been there all the other nights he'd spent wandering the Mutou residence in thought. _"A celebration for a savior . . . turned into a holiday of gift giving and family togetherness,"_ he murmured as he continued. He reached out to touch a colorful stained glass ornament, only for his hand to pass through it. He sighed.

He'd once been a pharaoh. A man who masqueraded as a god king with mighty powers and justly ruled over his people. He had to have a family once. The physical body he'd once inhabited had to come from _somewhere_.

But he couldn't remember them at all. Not a memory of his father or mother, not siblings (if he had any), no memory of what the air of his homeland tasted and smelled like, not even his own name! He clenched a fist, suppressing the urge to lash out, to hit something out of frustration. As the pharaoh, there was no doubt the world was once his oyster, and he had the finest of everything it had to offer.

And now, now he had nothing, not even a body to call his own, not even a name. He shared the name of his savior, and his savior called him his other self – he'd become nothing more than a shadow of a man. And on a holiday such as this, he couldn't even offer a small gift, a token of gratitude to the innocent boy who freed him from his dark prison, even if he wanted to.

After all, the act of gift giving necessitated that the one giving the gift _owned_ what he gave to begin with.

"Other me?" a sleepy voice mumbled from behind.

"_Aibou? What are you doing out of bed? It's not quite morning yet, shouldn't you be sleeping?"_

"I was, but then I had," he paused, as though he were hesitant to say something, before he shook his head and continued anyway, "I had another nightmare."

"_Other Malik?"_

"Pegasus first, then followed by Other Malik."

And the spirit fought the urge to scream. Here was a boy who loved games, whose love of puzzles gave him the determination to solve the Millennium Puzzle. He freed an amnesiac spirit from its confines, and his thanks for the nigh-impossible task? Nightmares from all the unscrupulous and crazed people of the world who were after the Puzzle for its power.

"_Come on, I'll go upstairs with you and I'll stay until you fall asleep again."_

"What were you doing downstairs anyway?"

"_Just thinking."_

Yuugi gave him a look that reminded the spirit just how intuitive he was, despite his childishly innocent looks. "I told you before, when I explained the holiday, that it's alright you have nothing tangible to give me. You already gave me the one thing I wanted more than anything else in the world through the Puzzle."

"_But I-"_

"You can't help not remembering anything, just as I can't help being so short." He paused, before turning around to look the spirit in the eye. "I meant it when I said I'd share everything with you, including my memories."

The spirit wanted to say something more, to protest harder, to point out all of the trouble and close scrapes the boy had to go through since then, but the look silenced him. So instead he replied with, _"And I meant it too when I said I wanted to stay here with you forever. I just wish it didn't have to involve sharing your body."_

By then, they had reached the bed, and Yuugi had tucked himself back under the covers. "Stay out with me until I-" the rest of the sentence was swallowed up by a large yawn.

"_Sleep aibou. And then yes, I will return to the Puzzle and rest too_."

"Good," came the sleepily mumbled reply.

And as the spirit watched the boy fall asleep once more, he murmured, _"Sweet dreams, aibou."_


End file.
